Playing cards for an educational game

ABSTRACT

A pack of playing cards for an educational game comprises a number of sets of cards exactly equal to the number of faces on a die. Each card has a front and rear face, each rear face being identical to each other. Each card has disposed on the front face at least one question and answer and a depiction of at least one die-face, the number represented by the die-face being credited to a player correctly answering the question on the card during the game. Each card of each set has disposed thereon the depiction of the same die-face, the die-face being different in each set, and there being equal numbers of cards in each set.

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/244,392, filed asPCT/GB93/02112, Oct. 13, 1993 published as WO94/08671, Apr. 28, 1994 nowU.S. Pat. No. 5,551,700.

DESCRIPTION

1. Technical Field

The invention relates to a pack of playing cards for an educationalgame. The game may be of especial interest for children, although it mayalso be played by adults.

2. Background Art

The need for encouraging children to learn is well-known, and to thisend a number of games have been devised over the years. Many such gamesinvolve the use of cards which carry questions for the child to answer.Particularly well-known are are so-called flash card games in which thefront face of a card carries a question for the child to answer. Suchquestions may be in the form of a straightforward question, anarithmetical problem such as 4+7=?, or a picture of of an object whichthe child has to spell. Other card games are known in which the frontface of the card bears both the question and the answer. With such gamesthe question is read to the child by another person, the card face onlybeing shown to the child after he has answered.

Unfortunately in such games the `educational` content is very high andthe `game` content is low, with the result that the child becomes boredand loses interest. The need therefore is for the `game` content to beincreased so that the child is keen to continue, and it is to this endthat the present invention is directed.

Most children are familiar with so-called "die-and-track" games. In suchgames a board is provided on which is printed a track of sequentialrectangles leading from a "start" position to an "end" position. Eachplayer in the game has an identifying piece, such as a coloured disc,which can be placed in a rectangle on the track. The player throws a dieand his identifying piece is moved along the track by the number ofrectangles equal to that shown on the upper face of the die. "Ludo" and"Snakes and Ladders" are well-known examples of such a game. Suchdie-and-track games are both very familiar and very popular. The presentinvention provides an arrangement whereby for such a game the die isreplaced by cards bearing the depiction of a die face, and a player isrequired to answer a question on the card before he can advance hispiece.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

According to the invention a pack of playing cards for an educationalgame comprises a plurality of cards, each card having a front and rearface, each card having disposed on the front face thereof at least onequestion, and each card having disposed thereon the answer to the oreach question, and each card having disposed thereon a depiction of adie-face.

Preferably the pack of cards comprises a plurality of sets of cards,each set depicting a different face of a multifaced die. Thus, forexample, 48 cards might be divided into six sets of eight cards, thefirst set bearing the die face "1", the second set bearing the die face"2", and so on through the sets so that the sixth set bears the die face"6". The six sets are therefore appropriate to a normal six-faced die.Naturally, further sets might be provided as appropriate if a multifaceddie having more than six faces is used. In this description if the worddie (dice) is used without qualification it is to be understood that anormal cubic six-faced die (dice) is intended.

Conveniently the questions of any pack relate to one educational aspector discipline, such as arithmetic, spelling, history, general knowledge,and so on. Packs of cards carrying questions appropriate to adults mayalso be provided.

Preferably a full complement of cards comprises a number of packs ofcards, each pack relating to a different aspect or discipline. Forexample, in each full complement of cards there may be four packs ofcards relating to arithmetic, spelling, history and general knowledgerespectively, the cards in each pack being identified by these words orthe letters A, S, H and K respectively.

Preferably, each card carries a plurality of questions of differentdegrees of difficulty appropriate to players of different ages orabilities.

Preferably also, the question(s) and answer(s) are disposed on one faceof the card. The depiction of the die-face may be on this side also, orit may be on the opposite face.

For convenience in this specification the side of the card on which thequestion(s) appears shall be regarded as the "front" face of the card,and the other side shall be regarded as the "rear" face.

The presentation of a question and answer on a card may be implicitrather than in direct form. For example, in a pack of cards directed tothe subject "Rivers of the World" a card bearing the words:

    PARIS--SEINE

would imply the question "What is the main river flowing through Paris?to which the correct answer is "The Seine".

Again, in a pack of cards directed to spelling, the word itself givesboth question and answer, for example, the word BLEACH implies thequestion "How do you spell "Bleach"?, and gives the answer B L E A C H.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 represents a front face of a card according to one embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 2 represents the front face of a different card in the same pack.

FIG. 3 represents the front face of yet another card in the same pack.

FIG. 4 represents the front face of a card in a different pack.

FIG. 5 represents the rear face of a card.

FIG. 6 represents the front face of a card of a second embodiment.

FIG. 7 represents the rear face of a card of a third embodiment.

FIG. 8 represents the front face of a card of a fourth embodiment

FIG. 9 represents the rear face of the card of FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 represents the front face of a modification of the card of FIG.4.

MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

First Embodiment. A first embodiment will now be described withreference to FIGS. 1-4 of the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1 a card 1 in a pack of cards according to theinvention has a front face 2 on which is depicted a face 3 of asix-faced die, the face 3 indicating the die count "2". The card isdivided by a line 4 into two sections 5, 6, which may be printed indifferent colours. Printed within the the section 5 is an "easy"arithmetical question 7 and its answer 8, and within the section 6 is a"hard" arithmetical question 9 with its answer 10.

The card 1 of FIG. 1 belongs to a first set of eight cards all of whichdepict the die face for die count "2", and all of which carry differenteasy and hard questions.

FIG. 2 shows a card similar to that of FIG. 1 but belonging to anotherset of eight cards all depicting the die-face "3". Again, easy and hardquestions are printed on each card together with their answers. Six setsof eight cards relating to the six faces of a standard six-faced die areprovided to make up a pack of 48 cards all relating to the dicsciplineof arithmetic. Naturally the questions and answers differ from card tocard.

The 48 cards relating to arithmetic are all identified by a commonmarking which may be the letter "A" printed at any convenient place onthe card.

FIG. 3 shows one of two cards in the set of cards carrying the die face"6" which differs from the others in that a star 11 is drawn in themiddle of the front face. The purpose of this "star card" will beexplained hereinafter.

FIG. 4 shows the front face of a card in a 48-card pack directed tospelling. The bottom half 5 contains 5 `easy-spell` words 7A to 7E, andthe top half 6 contains 5 `hard-to-spell` words 9A to 9E. Each carddepicts at 3 a die-face, there being 8 cards for each of the six facesof a die. Two of the cards bearing die-face 6 carry a star similar tothat shown in FIG. 3.

Mode of play. The cards may be used to replace the die used in any`single-die` die-and-track game, such as ludo or snakes and ladders. Byway of example one may consider the cards of the invention being used insuch a game by a group of children of two different age groups. Thecards are shuffled and stacked front face downwards on the table. If thecards have a plurality of questions in each of the "easy" and "hard"sections, as in FIG. 4 where there are 5 questions in each section, adecision is then made as to which of the first, second, third, and soon, questions are to be valid for that game. If, for example, thedecision is that the second questions are to be valid, then, for thatgame, the first, third and subsequent questions are ignored. The firstplayer takes the top card from the pile and passes it unseen to anotherplayer, or to a game supervisor such as a parent, who reads either theeasy question or the hard question according to the age or ability ofthe player. If the player answers correctly he is told the die count onthat card and may move his identifying piece forward on the track bythat number of spaces. Otherwise he does not move, and the question ispassed to the next player who has the opportunity to answer thatquestion. When the question has been either (a) answered correctly or(b) incorrectly answered by all of the players the card is then returnedto the bottom of the pack and the turn then passes to the next playerwho takes the next card from the top of the pile. The same procedure isthen followed and this is continued player by player until one playerreaches the winning position of the particular die-and-track game beingplayed. The cards are shuffled frequently to ensure randomprobabilities.

It will be apparent that both the die number on the card and the correctanswering of the question together correspond to the die throw of astandard die-and-track game.

The "star cards" mentioned heretofore provide an elaboration whereby ifa child correctly answers the question on this card he moves anadditional six places, and if he fails he moves back six places.

Whilst as described above the cards have been used with the boards ofknown die-and-track games it is clear that a board carrying a trackspecially dedicated to a learning game may be provided.

The cards described above are very versatile and may be used for gamesother than "die-and-track" games, for example, games simulating sportingactivities. One such game is cricket. In this the players are dividedinto two teams A and B, and it is convenient to consider A to be theteam bowling and B the team batting. The cards are shuffled and stackedwith the front (question) side downwards. A player in team A picks thetop card and "bowls" the question to the first player in team B. If heanswers correctly he scores runs equal to the number depicted on thedie-face (1-6) of that card, whereupon the bowler picks the next cardand "bowls" a second question. Play continues until the player fails toanswer a question correctly, whereupon that player is "out" and the nextplayer in team B takes his place. When all team B are out they becomethe bowling team and team A the batsmen. The team scoring the most runswins.

Instead of single-wicket cricket as just described double-wicket cricketmay be played. In this two members of the batting side are "in" at thesame time. If the batsman taking strike scores an odd number of runs hispartner receives the next question. If lie scores an even number heretains the strike.

The cards may be used for a variation on the game of "Pairs" or "Fish".In this the cards are shuffled and spread front face downwards over atable without overlapping. Each player in turn selects two cards andturns them over. If he has selected a pair having the same die count heretains the cards and selects another pair; if not he replaces the cardsfront face downwards in their original positions and the turn passes tothe next player. Play continues until all the cards have been retainedby one or other of the players. All the cards retained by a player arefanned out in front of him with the front faces downwards. The secondstage of the game now begins. The player with the most cards (call himA) has the first turn. The game supervisor (or the person on A's right)selects one of the A's fan of cards and reads the question to him. If Aanswers correctly he receives the card to place in his "store". Thesupervisor selects another card from A's fan and reads this. If answeredcorrectly this too goes in A's store, and this continues until A failsto answer a card correctly. This card is then placed face-down to starta "pool" of cards on the table. The turn then passes to the player B onA's left. Again the supervisor asks the questions on cards selected fromB's fan, and these are "stored" when correctly answered. If incorrectlyanswered the card is added to the pool, and the turn passes to the nextplayer. Play continues in this way round the table. Should any player bewithout `fanned` cards a card from the pool (which is frequentlyshuffled) is selected. If this is answered correctly it is stored by theplayer, and the question from another pool card is put to him, his turnceasing at an incorrect answer. Eventually all the fanned cards willhave been either stored or placed in the pool; at this stage playcontinues with the pool cards until all these have been correctlyanswered and stored. Each player counts up the die values of his storedcards, the winner being the one with the highest total.

In the 48-card packs of cards described above the rear faces of thecards have not been utilised. However, the rear faces may be used forother educative games. FIG. 5 show the rear face of a card for such agame. The 48 cards are divided in four "suits", these being the fourcountries Austria, Switzerland, Poland and Denmark. The name 20 isprinted at the top of the card, and below this there is a depiction ofthe national flag 21, and the name of the capital city 22, the currency23, and an indication of the population 24. The cards in each suit arenumbered from 1 to 12 in Arabic numerals at 25 and Roman numerals at 26.

These cards may be used for playing a game analogous to "rummy" in whichseven cards are dealt to each player and the rest are stacked with the"country" face downwards to form a stock. The first player takes the topcard from the stock and discards that card or a card from his hand ontoa "discard" stack "Country" face upwards, his object being to change thecards in his hand until It contains a set of three cards and a set offour cards, the cards a set being consecutive cards of the same countryor cards of the same value of different countries. The next player thentakes the top card from either the unseen stock or the discard stack anddiscards either that card or a different card from his hand. The playerstake turns in sequence until one player is successful and is "out",whereupon the values of the cards not forming a set held by the otherplayers are totalled and recorded as a score against them. Playcontinues through a predetermined number of deals, the winner being theplayer with the lowest score at the end.

An important feature of these "double-sided" cards is that they providefor subliminal learning. When one side of the cards is the "playingside" the non-playing side is being continously exposed to the players,and the information thereon is being unconsciously absorbed. Thus whilechildren are using the cards in a "die-and-track" game they willunknowingly be taking In information about the countries Austria,Switzerland, Poland and Denmark from the rear faces of the cards.

Whilst as described the rear faces of all the cards of a particularcountry are identical except for the number, it is clear that differentcards may carry different information about that country. Thus 48 factsabout a country may be presented on its 12 cards,

It is also clear that the four countries on the rear of a pack whosemain subject is "Spelling" may differ from the countries on a"Arithmetic" pack, and so on, so that in a complement of six companionpacks a total of 24 countries may be covered.

It will be clear that the rear faces of the cards such as that shown inFIG. 5 could be provided with die-faces. In such a pack there isprovision for two die-and-track games, one using the front faces of thecards and the other using the rear faces.

Second Embodiment. In the first embodiment described above the cards aresuitable as a replacement for the die in single-die die-and-tack games.In such games the pack must contain the same number of cards for eachdie-face. As described above there are 8 cards per die-face, but 9, 10or other numbers per die-face would be suitable. However, many gamessuch as Monopoly (Trade Mark) and Cluedo (Trade Mark) require two dice,and to replace the dice in such games demands a different cardarrangement.

As shown in FIG. 1, a die-face 3 is depicted twice in opposite cornersof the front face of a card. The two depictions carry the same die count`2`, these two being merely two depictions of a single die face. In thearrangement described the pack of cards is designed for games in whichonly a single die is used, this giving die counts of `1` to `6`.

However, in a second embodiment of the invention as shown in FIG. 6 thetwo depictions 3A and 3B in opposite corners of the card represent thedie counts of two individual dice, and are equivalent to the throw of apair of dice in a two-die game. The invention embraces, therefore, apack of playing cards in which each card bears, in addition to at leastone question and answer, the depictions of the faces of two dice, thecards in the pack providing depictions representative of all possiblethrows of a pair of dice. In this respect, in order that theprobabilities correspond to those using two separate dice, 36 cards arerequired, i.e. one card with dice 1:1, two cards with 1:2, one card with2:2, two cards with 1:3 and so on. A pack, therefore, must comprise 36cards or a multiple thereof. As shown in FIG. 6 the subject of the packis French, and in each of the easy and hard sections, 5 and 6respectively, there are two English words with their Frenchtranslations. Naturally, the questions 7A, 7B, 9A, 9B, may be asked ineither direction.

Third Embodiment. In the embodiments above, where the cards act as areplacement for dice in die-and-track games, the die face must bedepicted on the front face of the card along with the question andremain hidden before this is asked to prevent the player deliberatelyanswering wrongly to avoid landing on an unfavourable square.

However, the invention embraces a pack of cards where the depiction ofthe die-face is on the rear face of the cards as shown at 30 in FIG. 7.The front faces of the cards carry the questions and answers asdescribed with refererence to the previous embodiments above, but may inaddition carry a depiction of the die-face. Each pack contains equalnumbers of each die-face, for example, eight cards of each of the sixdie faces. In play the cards are sorted according to die count, andplaced in six stacks with the front (question) face downwards. The firstplayer throws a standard six-faced die, takes the top card from thestack corresponding to the number revealed by the die and passes it to agame supervisor or another player who reads the question. If answeredcorrectly the player records the die count as his score and the turnpasse to the next player who repeats the procedure, and the gamecontinues player by player until all player have had a predeterminednumber of turns. The winner is the player who amasses the highest score.The questions on the cards may be graded in difficulty in accordancewith the die-count thereon, the 1's being the easiest questions and the6's the hardest.

Fourth Embodiment A fourth embodiment of the invention will now bedescribed with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9 in which cards are used tosimulate the game of snooker.

For those who may not know this game, snooker is a very popular gamewhich is frequently to be seen on British television. In this game abaize-covered table is provided with six pockets spaced around itsperiphery. A number of equi-sized balls of ivory or similar hardmaterial are disposed on the table, these being of a size to just passinto a pocket if accurately rolled towards it. There are 22 such balls,of which 15 are red in colour, the others being respectively yellow,green, brown, blue, pink, black and white. The players are provided withrods or "cues" which taper to a tipped end. At his turn a playerattempts to strike the white ball, (the "cue" ball) with the tipped endof the cue in such a way that it hits another ball and projects thisinto a pocket. A player must first pocket or "pot" a red ball for whichhe scores one point, whereafter he may attempt to pot one of the otherballs (the "colours") which carry higher score values, these beingyellow 2, green 3, brown 4, blue 5, pink 6, and black 7. Should he besuccessful the coloured ball so potted is returned to a prescribed spoton the table, its value is added to the player's score, and the playercontinues by attempting to pot another red ball. Again if successfulanother point is added to the score and the player may try to pot acoloured ball again. The sequence of alternate red and "coloured" ballsis continued, but unlike the colours the red balls are not returned tothe table. Should the player fail to pot the ball he is attempting topot his turn ceases and the next player goes to the table. The totalpoints amassed by the player in a sequence of successful pots is knownas his "break", and this is added to the sum of points accrued atprevious turns at the table. When all 15 red balls have been potted thecoloured balls are potted in the ascending order of value, namely,yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, black.

It will be appreciated that that by successively potting a number ofballs in sequence a player may obtain a very high "break" score at asingle turn at the table. Also, it will be realised that by electing topot high value colours such as pink and black rather than yellow andgreen a player's score may advance rapidly.

The present invention contemplates an educational card game based uponthe game of snooker in which both these aspects may be present to addinterest and excitement to the game.

In this embodiment a pack of cards is provided in which, as shown inFIG. 8, the front face 102 of every card is divided by a line 104 intotwo sections 105, 106 which may be printed in different colours. Printedwithin the section 105 are easy questions 107 with their answers 108,and within the section 106 are hard questions 109 with their answers110. The cards are divided into seven sets identified by an area on therear face of the card printed in one of the seven colours red, yellow,green, brown, blue, pink, and black, respectively. As shown in FIG. 9the area comprises a circle 111 near the centre of the rear face of thecard. It is, however, clear that the area may be predominantly the wholearea of the card, or any shape such as a square or rectangle positionedat any convenient place so as to identify that the card belongs to thered set, or the yellow set, or whichever of the seven sets it is. On therear face of each card there is the depiction of a die-face 112. Thisdie-face may be repeated at 103 on the front face of the card. On thered cards the die-face depicts the number 1; on the yellow cards 2; onthe green cards 3; on the brown cards 4; on the blue cards 5; on thepink cards 6 and on the black cards the die-face depicts the number 6and has a star alongside it, as best seen in FIGS. 8 and 9.

In play, the cards are stacked face downwards in their sets of colours,and the first player selects a card from the red set. A question on thatcard is read to him by another player or the game supervisor, and if itis answered correctly it counts as the potting of a red ball and scoresone point. The player is then entitled to choose a card from one of thesix sets representing the `colours`. If the question on this is answeredcorrectly the player scores the value of that colour, e.g. 2 for ayellow. He may then go on selecting red and `colour` cards alternatelyand amassing a score until he fails to answer a question correctly andhis break ends, the turn then passing to the next player.

Conveniently there are 15 cards in the red set and six each in the othersix colours. Alternatively, there may be 8 cards for each of the coloursred, yellow, green, brown and blue, 6 cards for pink and 2 cards forblack. Another possibility is to have 15 red cards, 8 yellow cards, 7green cards, 6 brown cards, 5 blue cards, 4 pink cards, and 2 blackcards. The score value of any card is that depicted on the die face,except that the black cards depicting a die face 6 with a star alongsideare valued 7. The questions on the cards may be graded in difficultyaccording to the value of the card, red cards having the easiestquestions and black cards the hardest.

It will be clear that in any of the embodiments described above when acard carries a plurality of questions these may be of differing degreesof difficulty. Thus as described with deference to FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6and 8, each card carries one or more "easy" questions in a lower section5, 105, and one or more "difficult" questions in an upper section 6,106. (It is immaterial whether the easy questions are in the top sectionand the difficult questions are in the bottom section or vice versaprovided there is consistency throughout the pack).

However, it is also clear that the provision of just two grades, "easy"and "difficult" may not be adequate. FIG. 10, which is in a packdirected to Spelling, shows an arrangement wherein symbols are providedto increase the grades of difficulty. The card 201 has a front face onwhich a die-face 203 is depicted, and is divided into an upper "easy"section 205 suitable for younger or less able players, and a lower "moredifficult" section 206 for older or more able players. In the uppersection are six questions 207A to 207F. The two questions 207A and 207Bare accompanied by a symbol 220 in the form of a circle indicating aneasy question. The questions 207C and 207D are accompanied by a symbol221 in the form of a diamond indicating a question of averagedifficulty, and the questions 207E and 207F are accompanied by a symbol222 in the form of a square indicating a question of more than averagedifficulty. Thus within the upper "easy" section there are "easy","average" and "hard" questions Indicated by circles, diamonds and squarerespectively.

Similarly in the lower "hard" section there are questions 209A to 209Fcategorised as "easy", "average" and "hard" by the provision circles220, diamonds 221 and squares 222 respectively.

Clearly there may be an overlap in the degree of difficulty such thatthe most difficult questions (squares) in the "easy" section 205 may bemore difficult than the easiest questions (circles) in the "hard"section 206. Alternatively there may be a progressive increase in thedegree of difficulty.

It will be apparent that further symbols, for example, crosses, stars,ovals, and the like, may be provided to increase the levels ofdifficulty, and that the division into easy and hard sections may beavoided, a single continuum of difficulty in the questions beingprovided.

The use of symbols as just described to indicate the degree ofdifficulty of the questions on cards may be applied to any of theembodiments and modifications described in the specification.

Numerous modifications and variations will be apparent to one skilled inthe art without departing from the scope of the invention.

We claim:
 1. A pack of playing cards for an educational game,comprising:a) a number of sets of cards exactly equal to the number offaces on a die, each card having a front and rear face, each rear facebeing identical to each other; b) each card having disposed on saidfront face at least one question and answer; c) each card havingdisposed thereon a depiction of at least one die-face on said frontface, the number represented by said at least one die-face beingcredited to a player correctly answering said at least one question onsaid card during the game; and d) each card of each set having disposedthereon the depiction of the same die-face, the die-face being differentin each set, and there being equal numbers of cards in each set.
 2. Apack of playing cards as in claim 1, wherein:a) said number of sets ofcards is exactly six, the cards of each set carrying the depiction ofthe same die-face, the die-face being different in each set, and therebeing equal numbers of cards in each set, such that said cards areadapted for replacing a six-faced die in a single-die die-and-trackgame.
 3. A pack of playing cards as in claim 2, wherein:a) each set haseight cards, each set depicting a different one of the six die-faces ofa six-faced die.
 4. A pack of playing cards as in claim 2, wherein:a)each card belongs to one of a number of suits of cards, and said cardsin each suit are numbered sequentially on said rear face.
 5. A pack ofplaying cards as in claim 4, wherein:a) said rear faces of all the cardsin a suit are identical except for the number thereon.
 6. A pack ofplaying cards as in claim 4, wherein:a) said rear faces of all the cardsin a suit differ from one another by a different number and by adifferent word disposed thereon.
 7. A pack of playing cards as in claim4, wherein:a) said rear faces of all the cards in a suit differ from oneanother by a different number and by a different picture disposedthereon.
 8. A pack of playing cards as in claim 4, wherein:a) the numberof suits is 4, and the number of cards in a suit is 12, and the frontfaces of these cards comprise six sets of eight cards, each setdepicting a different one of the six die-faces of a six-faced die.
 9. Apack of playing cards as in claim 1, wherein:a) each card has thequestion and answer and the depiction of the die face on the same faceof the card.
 10. A pack of playing cards as in claim 1, wherein:a) eachcard carries a plurality of questions.
 11. A pack of playing cards as inclaim 10, wherein:a) each card carries at least one easy question and atleast one difficult question.
 12. A pack of playing cards as in claim11, wherein:a) each card carries a plurality of easy questions and aplurality of hard questions.
 13. A pack of playing cards as in claim 12,wherein:a) a symbol is provided alongside at least one question on eachcard to indicate the degree of difficulty of that question.
 14. A packof playing cards as in claim 13, wherein:a) a symbol indicating thedegree of difficulty is provided alongside each question on each card.15. A pack of playing cards as in claim 14, wherein:a) each symbol isselected from the group consisting of circles, diamonds, squares,crosses, stars and ovals.
 16. A pack of playing cards as in claim 1,wherein:a) the questions on all of the cards relate to one educationaldiscipline.
 17. A pack of playing cards for an educational game,comprising:a) a number of sets of cards exactly equal to the number offaces on a die, each card having a front and rear face; b) each rearface being identical to each other; c) each card having disposed on saidfront face at least one question and answer; d) each card havingdisposed thereon a depiction of at least one die-face on said frontface; and e) each card of each set having disposed thereon the depictionof the same die-face, the die-face being different in each set, andthere being equal numbers of cards in each set.
 18. A pack of playingcards for an educational game, comprising:a) a number of sets of cardsexactly equal to the number of faces on a die, each card having a frontand rear face, each rear face being identical to each other; b) eachcard having disposed on said front face at least one question andanswer; c) each card having disposed thereon a depiction of at least onedie-face on said front-face; and d) each card of each set havingdisposed thereon the depiction of the same die-face, the die-face beingdifferent in each set, and there being exactly eight cards in each set.19. A pack of playing cards for an educational game, comprising:a) anumber of sets of cards exactly equal to the number of faces on a die,each card having a front and rear face, each rear face being identicalto each other; b) each card having disposed on said front face at leastone question and answer relating to one educational discipline; c) eachcard having disposed thereon a depiction of at least one die-face onsaid front face; and d) each card of each set having disposed thereonthe depiction of the same die-face, the die-face being different in eachset, and there being equal numbers of cards in each set.
 20. A pack ofplaying cards for an educational game, comprising:a) a number of sets ofcards exactly equal to the number of faces on a die, each card having afront and rear face; b) each card having disposed on said front face atleast one question and answer; c) each card having disposed thereon adepiction of at least one die-face on said front face; and d) each cardof each set having disposed thereon the depiction of the same die-face,the die-face being different in each set, and there being equal numbersof cards in each set; and e) each card belonging to one of a number ofsuits of cards, said rear faces of all the cards in a suit beingdifferent from one another by a different word disposed thereon.
 21. Apack of playing cards for an educational game, comprising:a) a number ofsets of cards exactly equal to the number of faces on a die, each cardhaving a front and rear face; b) each card having disposed on said frontface at least one question and answer; c) each card having disposedthereon a depiction of at least one die-face on said front face; and d)each card of each set having disposed thereon the depiction of the samedie-face, the die-face being different in each set, and there beingequal numbers of cards in each set; and e) each card belonging to one ofa number of suits of cards, said rear faces of all the cards in a suitbeing different from one another by a different picture disposedthereon.